Data

Tools

Indexes

Applications

Experiments

Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

https://github.com/jeffthompson/interestingthings

A running list of interesting projects, articles, and resources
https://github.com/jeffthompson/interestingthings

Last synced: 4 months ago
JSON representation

A running list of interesting projects, articles, and resources

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

          
# Interesting Things



A running list of interesting projects, articles, and resources.



**Nov 6, 2017**  

* [Interview with artist Robertina Šebjanič](http://we-make-money-not-art.com/underwater-sound-pollution-and-jellyfish-communication-an-interview-with-robertina-sebjanic/), who makes work about underwater sound pollution and jellyfish communication  

* Google's open source chatbot platform [bottery](https://github.com/google/bottery)  

* Joi Ito's essay [Resisting Reduction: A Manifesto](https://pubpub.ito.com/pub/resisting-reduction)  

* Crazy paper on [tricking computer vision system](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.07397.pdf)  

* Adam Harvey's project [MegaPixels](https://ahprojects.com/notebook/2017/megapixels/), which compares your face to machine learning datasets and finds the nearest match  



**Oct 30, 2017**  



* Perfect timing for Halloween: [an hour of imaginary celebrities](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lE9tV9vm0&feature=youtu.be) from NVIDIA  

* Machine learning project from Mario Klingemann using [textures from electron microscope photos to draw emoji](https://twitter.com/quasimondo/status/924277231223963649)  

* Some [seriously crazy new tools from Adobe](https://www.fastcodesign.com/90147641/adobes-crazy-new-tools-destroy-reality-as-we-know-it)  

* [National Novel *Generation* Month (or NaNoGenMo)](https://nanogenmo.github.io/) starts November 1!  

* Stevens Venture Center [call for participants for an upcoming hackathon](https://venturehacks.xyz), plus [volunteers and mentors](https://venturehacks.xyz/mentor)  



**Oct 23, 2017** 



* This is what happens when you win [*Paperclips*](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMgbTUPWAAAN2RF.jpg)  

* [Talk by game designer David O'Reilly](http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/event/nyu-game-center-lecture-series-presents-david-oreilly/) (maker of the game *Everything*) at NYU Game Center  

* Some very cool videos/images of Nervous System's new geode-inspired puzzle ([1](https://www.instagram.com/p/BasEDfngfLC/?taken-by=nervous_jessica), [2](https://www.instagram.com/p/BarCpDAAqIP/?taken-by=nervous_jessica), [3](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bao3d_tAW-_/?taken-by=nervous_jessica))  



**Oct 16, 2017**  



* Very interesting show in Philadelphia titled [*Making/Breaking the Binary: Women, Art, & Technology (1968–85)*](https://www.womenartandtechnology.net/)  

* Show at ZKM titled [*Open Codes: Living in Digital Worlds*](http://zkm.de/en/event/2017/10/open-codes)  

* A [Javascript clone of *Tetris* that takes only 509-bytes of code](https://github.com/veu/mini-tetris)  

* TechCrunch article [*Thoughts on White People Using Dark-Skinned Emoji*](https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/01/thoughts-on-white-people-using-dark-skinned-emoji/)  

* [Fantastic deep look at animation and the uncanny valley](https://vimeo.com/237568588) from Alan Warburton  

* [*Gerenominos*, cards for generating ideas for interactive artworks](http://www.galaxykate.com/generominos/) from Kate Compton  

* Every wonder why it's called "upper" and "lower" case letters? [Here's the answer.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DL0CnZoU8AEcJQ-.jpg)  

* The addictive clicker game [*Paperclips*](http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/), which has the bonus as being a good example of training a machine learning system  



**Oct 2, 2017**  



* Google's [deeplearn.js](https://deeplearnjs.org/#getting-started) code and tutorials  

* Another, related, resource from Google: a [machine learning glossary](https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/glossary/)  

* Interesting piece from Aeon about [art, algorithms, and creativity](https://aeon.co/essays/how-algorithms-are-transforming-artistic-creativity)  

* Cool post from IEEE on the [Apollo program's "rope memory"](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/space-age/software-as-hardware-apollos-rope-memory)  

* Short piece in the Guardian on Cathy On'Neil and [her view that algorithms are destructive](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/27/cathy-oneil-weapons-of-math-destruction-algorithms-big-data)  

* Blog post on a project [mining "collective memory" from Wikipedia visits](http://blog.miz.space/research/2017/08/14/wikipedia-collective-memory-dynamic-graph-analysis-graphx-spark-scala-time-series-network/)  



**Sept 25, 2017**  



* VICE documentary on an [early, all-analog motion graphics system](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wxc3mKqKTk)  

* [*HARVEST*](http://www.creativeapplications.net/linux/harvest-mining-cryptocurrency-with-wind-to-fund-climate-research/), a project by Julian Oliver that uses wind power to mine cryptocurrency to fund climate research  

* Creative Applications, a blog about art and technology, [starts using Javascript-based Bitcoin mining code in place of ads](http://www.creativeapplications.net/mining-for-xmr/)  

* [Guggenheim pulls several works](https://hyperallergic.com/402341/guggenheim-pulls-three-works-from-upcoming-show-after-outcry-over-animal-abuse/) after protests from animal rights groups and an online petition  

* [Twitter now maxes out at 280 characters](https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/product/2017/Giving-you-more-characters-to-express-yourself.html)... if you don't speak a "cramming" language  



**Sept 18, 2017**  



* Using a [neural network to name guinea pigs](http://lewisandquark.tumblr.com/post/161854386267/neural-networks-can-name-guinea-pigs)  

* The Smithsonian's record of [the first computer "bug" ever found](http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_334663)  

* Nice piece on painter [Frank Auerbach](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/10336972/Frank-Auerbach-An-interview-with-one-of-our-greatest-living-painters.html)  

* Giant [language-processing/data-vis project](http://aschmann.net/AmEng/) mapping all North American English dialects  

* Insane collaborative "code golf" project [creating a working version of Tetris](https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/11880/build-a-working-game-of-tetris-in-conways-game-of-life) within [Conway's Game of Life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life)  

* Lore-El Center's [LeadHERship Conference](https://www.stevens.edu/campus-life/diversity-and-inclusion/lore-el-center-womens-leadership/fall-conference) is October 21  

* VA&T bowling night!  



**Sept 11, 2017**  



* Interesting, and disturbing, research out of Stanford showing an 80-90% accuracy rate predicting sexual orientation using deep neural networks: [the paper](https://osf.io/zn79k/) and [author's comments](https://docs.google.com/document/d/11oGZ1Ke3wK9E3BtOFfGfUQuuaSMR8AO2WfWH3aVke6U/preview), which address many of the troubling issues  

* [*Lessons From Early AI*](http://esoteric.codes/post/162280173308/lessons-from-early-ai-on-cognition-and-reasoning), an essay by Daniel Temkin on his *Esoteric Codes* excellent blog  

* Two years later, [Reddit's closing of several subreddits drastically reduces hate speech on the site](http://comp.social.gatech.edu/papers/cscw18-chand-hate.pdf)  

* An interesting [interview with artist Sebastian Schmieg](https://unthinking.photography/themes/machine-vision/the-politics-of-image-search-a-conversation-with-sebastian-schmieg-part-ii) on images and code  

* The [NY Art Book Fair](http://nyartbookfair.com/) is Sept 21–24 at MoMA PS1!  

* Registered to vote in Hudson County? Registration drive on campus next Monday from 1–3, in the lobby outside the dining hall!  



**Sept 4, 2017**  



* Our supercomputer needs a name! Help us by [filling out this form](https://goo.gl/forms/6YoQ7YQlZhSw4Lsl1) with a suggestion  

* A few more weeks left to see Ian Cheng's installation [*Emissaries* at PS1](http://iancheng.com/#simulations)  

* Artist Lauren McCarthy's [LAUREN](http://www.creativeapplications.net/webapp/lauren-smart-human-home-intelligence/)  

* Sci fi writer Ursula Le Guin's amazing essay [*A Rant About "Technology"*](http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Note-Technology.html)  

* An interesting thread on [using machine learning to identify neo-Nazi symbols](https://twitter.com/emilymaxima/status/905445894866124801)  

* Stevens Venture Center's [Digital Healthcare Hackathon](https://www.stevens.edu/research-entrepreneurship/stevens-venture-center/about/events/digital-healthcare-hackathon)  



**May 1, 2017**  



* [*Aerial Bold*](http://type.aerial-bold.com/data/), a project pulling letterforms from satellite images  

* [*White Collar Crime Risk Zones*](https://whitecollar.thenewinquiry.com), a project from The New Inquiry using machine learning to predict where financial crimes are likely to occur  

* Two really (really) in-depth articles on how [scrolling](https://pavelfatin.com/scrolling-with-pleasure/) and [typing](https://pavelfatin.com/typing-with-pleasure/) work  

* [What museums learn by tracking your phone](http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/04/exclusive-heres-what-museums-learn-by-tracking-your-phone/)  

* [Article on A/B testing in social networks](https://tech.okcupid.com/the-pitfalls-of-a-b-testing-in-social-networks/) like OkCupid  

* [Purdue University acquires the for-profit Kaplan University](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/04/27/purdue-acquires-for-profit-kaplan-university) (who will keep 12.5% of revenue generated)  

* Interesting take on [digital voice assistants like Siri and Alexa as skeumorphic](https://uxdesign.cc/the-new-skeuomorphism-is-in-your-voice-assistant-3b14a6553a0e)  

* [Short video documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzI8e8zc_Vo) on twins who make art (and money) on Instagram  



**April 17, 2017**  



* Artists Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti [form a shell company to photograph tax havens](https://hyperallergic.com/370843/artists-form-shell-company-to-visit-and-photograph-tax-havens/)  

* [*Field of Vision – The Moderators*](https://vimeo.com/213152344), a documentary about internet moderators from Ciaran Cassidy and Adrian Chen  

* [*Water Printer*](http://neural.it/2017/04/water-printer-description/) by Daniel Watkins  

* [Exhibition of 64 early internet artifacts](https://hyperallergic.com/371282/64-highlights-of-the-internets-early-years-from-the-first-webcam-to-a-net-art-gallery/) in London  

* [Pretty cool making-of video](https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpsyop%2Fvideos%2Fvb.7539924726%2F10155172385954727%2F%3Ftype%3D3) for Sherman Williams by Psyop  

* [Interactive, online course about probability](http://students.brown.edu/seeing-theory/basic-probability/index.html#first) from Brown University  

* Important work: [using machine learning to analyze internet dog slang](http://gutterstats.com/2017/04/16/pupper2vec-analysing-internet-dog-slang-with-machine-learning/)  



**April 10, 2017**  



* Google releases their [Earth Engine geospatial data and tools](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2OFaYmsvoE&list=WL&index=124)  

* Smithsonian Folkways' [recordings of an office from 1964](http://www.folkways.si.edu/sounds-of-the-office/album/smithsonian)  

* Zach Lieberman's [writeup of how his installation *Más Que la Cara* was developed](https://medium.com/@zachlieberman/m%C3%A1s-que-la-cara-overview-48331a0202c0)  

* Nice piece on data and research titled [*Ten Simple Rules for Responsible Big Data Research*](http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005399)  

* David Bowen's [*SPACEJUNK*](http://www.dwbowen.com/spacejunk/): a sculpture where sticks point to the oldest piece of space debris as it flies overhead  

* Cool project [*Unpaywall*](http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2017/04/04/announcing-unpaywall-unlocking-openaccess-versions-of-paywalled-research-articles-as-you-browse/), an extension showing open access versions of research behind paywalls  

* Great documentation of [*The Counterpointer*](http://www.luisapereira.net/projects/project/the-counterpointer-III/), a synth that generates three-part harmonies in the style of Bach  



**April 3, 2017**  



* [Redesigning the classic Zapfino typeface for Arabic](https://www.fastcodesign.com/3042235/how-to-redesign-an-iconic-typeface-for-arabic)  

* [Mastadon.social](https://mastodon.social/about), an open-source, distributed alternative to Twitter  

* [Abstract](https://www.abstractapp.com/), software for designing interfaces  

* [Very weird machines](http://www.cooksscience.com/articles/story/the-very-weird-world-of-highly-specialized-food-testing-machines/) for testing food properties  

* [Adobe's new tool for using AI to design websites](https://www.fastcodesign.com/3068884/adobe-is-building-an-ai-to-automate-web-design-should-you-worry)  

* Machine learning tool for [identifying terrorists by their V-signs](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600971/machine-learning-algorithm-aims-to-identify-terrorists-using-the-v-signs-they-make/)  

* John Maeda's annual [Design In Tech Report](https://designintechreport.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/design-in-tech-report-2017-video/), plus [the slides](https://designintechreport.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/dit-2017-1-0-2-sunday-compressed.pdf)  

* [The Best Art](http://nicole.pizza/the-best-art/) bot  

* Twitter replaces the blank egg, spends a month designing something meant to be [generic and temprorary](https://www.fastcodesign.com/90107712/inside-twitterand8217s-obsessive-quest-to-ditch-the-egg)  



**March 27, 2017**



* Simple but very nice website for the festival [*Elevation 1049*](https://www.elevation1049.org/en/gstaad/)  

* Using plastic bottles as [heatshrink tubing for wood joints](https://vimeo.com/172330337)  

* StackOverflow's annual [Developer Survey](https://stackoverflow.com/insights/survey/2017/)  

* Brain-scan-like [graphs of neural networks](http://www.wired.co.uk/gallery/machine-learning-graphcore-pictures-inside-ai)  

* [Lots of discussion this last week](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/mar/21/whitney-biennial-emmett-till-painting-dana-schutz) about a painting by Dana Schutz in the Whitney Biennial, depicting the body of Emmett Till  



**March 20, 2017**  



* Artsy's [*16 Women Pushing Design Forward in the US*](https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-16-women-pushing-design-forward-united-states)  

* Nice writeup on [Image-to-Image](https://affinelayer.com/pixsrv/)  

* How [recording bird colors eventually became Pantone](http://hyperallergic.com/283388/the-bird-based-color-system-that-eventually-became-pantone/)  

* Processing Foundation's [call for Google Summer of Code](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/4962961559912448/)  

* The [Photo Retouchers Accord](http://www.retouchersaccord.com/)  

* The site [Logobook](https://www.creativereview.co.uk/new-website-logobook-archives-logos-going-back-50s/), with examples dating back to the 1950s  

* Making of [*The Bear & The Hare* animation](https://vimeo.com/78254514)  

* Trailer for David O'Reilly's new game [*EVERYTHING*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYHp8LwBUzo&feature=youtu.be)  

* Weirdo voice synth webtoy [*Pink Trombone*](http://www.dood.al/pinktrombone)  



**March 6, 2017**



* [Video documentary from Motherboard](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/watch-the-master-microfixer-jessa-jones-at-work) on microsoldering and smartphone repair  

* [*Marshmallow*](https://positype.com/marshmallow/) typeface  

* [*What Design Can't Do*](http://networkcultures.org/entreprecariat/what-design-cant-do/) by Silvio Lorusso  

* Cellular automata works by [*Troika*](http://www.creativeapplications.net/objects/trickle-down-aesthetics-cellular-automata-in-recent-works-by-troika/)  

* Kickstarter's annual [benefit statement](https://www.kickstarter.com/year/2016/benefit-statement?ref=email_announcement) for their second year as a Public Benefit Corporation  

* NASA's [huge open-source software catalog](https://software.nasa.gov)  



**February 27, 2017**



* Radiohead's *Fitter Happer* is their gloomiest song, [says science](http://rcharlie.com/2017-02-16-fitteR-happieR/)  

* Recipe for [making your own ink](http://recipes.hypotheses.org/8935)  

* Universal Everything's [*Screens of the Future: Future Display Prototypes*](http://universaleverything.com/projects/screens-of-the-future/)  

* Lauren Hudgins on how [hating Comic Sans is ableist](https://theestablishment.co/hating-comic-sans-is-ableist-bc4a4de87093#.f7kxjs258), and an article by Vincent Connare, the font's designer, on [why he made it in the first place](http://www.connare.com/whycomic.htm)  

* Simon Christoph Krenn's super creepy [*Cambrian Explosion*](https://vimeo.com/200373210?ref=fb-share)  



**February 20, 2017**



* The World Press Photo contest [named an image of the assassination of Russia's embassador to Turkey as their photo of the year](https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/the-worlds-best-photo-world-press-awards/?smid=tw-share), sparking lots of debate  

* Wearable antennas for recording magnetic fields by [Dewi de Vree and Patrizia Ruthensteiner](http://neural.it/2017/02/magnetoceptia-audio-rituals-with-wearable-antennas/)  

* [*Every New York Times Front Page Since 1852*](https://vimeo.com/204951759) by Josh Begley  

* Sculptures by [Pennacchio Argentato](http://www.pennacchioargentato.com/)  



**February 13, 2017**  



* [MS Word sounds playing Smash Mouth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXQ7e8w7mQ) is probably the worst thing ever  

* A really wonderful online book about [programming for designers](https://programmingdesignsystems.com/introduction/)  

* If you're interested in machine learning, you might want to check out Google's [TensorFlow Summit](https://events.withgoogle.com/tensorflow-dev-summit/watch-the-videos/#content)  

* Very nice [writeup of a visual identity project](http://lava.nl/projects/bjdw) for Beijing Design Week 2015  



**February 6, 2017**  



* [*Ten Meter Jump*](https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004882589/ten-meter-tower.html) documentary from Sundance, via NY Times  

* Buzzfeed [recorded a Facebook livestream](https://www.buzzfeed.com/lamvo/this-is-what-facebooks-filter-bubble-actually-looks-like?utm_term=.ucgdPPv4e#.sa1900J3y) from two different profiles  

* [*Re-ordering video frames based on audio similarity*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb6yXR0ndFI) by Mario Klingemann  

* [MoMA exhibition](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/arts/design/moma-protests-trump-entry-ban-with-work-by-artists-from-muslim-nations.html) of art from Muslim nations affected by Trump's entry ban  

* Mozilla has a new logo, and they've published [extensive materials on the redesign](https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/now-for-the-fun-part/)  

* New York Times' extensive data on universities, including [economic mobility of students at Stevens](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/stevens-institute-of-technology)  



**January 30, 2017**



* [*Crossvision*](http://www.marxen.design/pages/crossvision.html) slit-scan weirdness by Henning Marxen  

* [Paper on using style transfer](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.04928v1.pdf) for rendering sequences in film  

* [Upcoming online talk by Grady Booch](http://www.sercuarc.org/events/serc-talks-what-is-the-self/) of IBM Research, on AI in the physical world  

* A [wonderful interview with designer Julia Born](http://blogs.walkerart.org/design/2017/01/23/a-public-character-shannon-ebner-designed-julia-born-interview) on the Walker's design blog about books and collaboration  

* [Alphabo](https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/sets/72157675648841716), a modular alphabet system from 1932